Yun Shan's Cruel Heart

Although Su Baichen had already come to sympathize with Yun Yun's life experiences, what puzzled him more than her tragic fate was why she had appeared in the Snake-People Tribe's dungeon.

Moreover, Yun Yun's name was clearly listed under "Did Not Apply for Repatriation" on that roster!

She actually did not want to go back?

How was that possible!

With Yun Yun's talent, she was among the best in the Misty Cloud Sect. Remaining in the sect would have earned her Yun Shan's full support and the sect's resources; her future would have been limitless.

No matter how one looked at it, Yun Shan had no reason to abandon such a disciple with boundless potential.

The strangeness of it all was like an invisible thread tugging at Su Baichen's thoughts, making him deeply curious about why Yun Yun had ended up here.

"Someone!" Su Baichen called toward the door.

"Mr. Su, what are your instructions?" The maid waiting outside answered and entered, her manner respectful.

"What do you know about this Yun Yun?"

Hearing this, the maid thought for a moment before replying, "Mr. Su, this servant does not know much. I only know that she was captured by the Second Elder and Third Elder."

"And I heard that after she was caught, she seemed to go stupid. She neither ate nor drank in the dungeon."

"She would not write any letters either. She seemed extremely resistant to it."

Su Baichen was puzzled after hearing that.

"Investigate her. Find out how Yun Yun is doing now and exactly what happened. I want all the information on her." Su Baichen ordered, lightly tapping Yun Yun's name on the roster with his fingertip.

"Yes, Mr. Su."

Over this period of time, Su Baichen had used his abilities to solve many difficult problems for the Snake-People Tribe, earning respect from everyone.

Therefore, the maid handled his request with great efficiency.

Before long, detailed intelligence on how Yun Yun had become a prisoner was compiled and delivered to Su Baichen.

Su Baichen unfolded the dossier and read it carefully. The expression on his face gradually shifted from confusion to surprise, then finally into a complicated understanding. So Yun Yun had been abandoned.

And she had been personally abandoned by her teacher, Yun Shan, the current sect master of the Misty Cloud Sect!

According to the intelligence, the matter had begun with an expedition into the Tagor Desert, tacitly agreed upon by several factions.

Initially, everyone had agreed to send only Dou Wang-level experts to ensure fairness and prevent the conflict from escalating.

Who would have thought that Yun Shan was so shameless? He had secretly set out in person, intending to seize the advantage with his Dou Emperor cultivation.

Yet fate had other plans. Yun Shan's movements were discovered by the Snake-People Tribe's Third Elder, who immediately summoned the Second Elder, and the two joined forces to besiege him.

With Yun Shan's peak Dou Emperor strength, even when caught between two Snake-People Dou Emperors, it would not have been impossible for him to protect his disciple Yun Yun and escape if he had truly wanted to leave.

But fate had a twisted sense of humor. To borrow the intelligence report's somewhat teasing phrasing, it was simply: "When bad luck opened the door for bad luck, it found bad luck already at home."

While Yun Shan was locked in battle with the two Snake-People Elders, he sharply sensed an incomparably powerful, cold, murderous aura rapidly approaching—it was Queen Medusa, passing through this region while pursuing Hai Bodong!

Yun Shan mistakenly believed Queen Medusa had come for him. With the two Snake-People Dou Emperors holding him fast and Queen Medusa's terrifying aura drawing ever closer, fear overwhelmed him, and he actually chose to sacrifice the lesser to save the greater.

To escape himself, he unhesitatingly abandoned his disciple Yun Yun, who had only been a Dou Wang at the time, and fled alone in panic.

(One could imagine Jia Xingtian teasing him afterward: "Old Yun, where's your precious disciple?")

(Yun Shan could only answer with a dark expression, forcing himself to remain calm. "Don't mention it. My luck was terrible. I ran into Queen Medusa and had no choice but to return alone.")

(Then Jia Xingtian might "casually" reveal, "Oh? But I heard Queen Medusa seemed to be chasing an old man of ice at the time, not targeting you.")

(Yun Shan would probably feel his blood surge on the spot and lose his temper in fury. "Aaaah!")

(Meanwhile, in a small town at the edge of the Tagor Desert, a white-haired old man concealing his aura might suddenly shudder for no reason and feel a chill run down his spine.)

"Well now, this plot really is dramatic." Su Baichen closed the dossier and could not help muttering, "That old bastard Yun Shan was truly cursed with bad luck, running right into Cailin while she was in a foul mood."

"If he had learned the truth earlier, he probably would have regretted it until his guts turned green. He might even have rushed out of the Misty Cloud Sect and personally slapped that 'culprit,' Hai Bodong, to death."

After learning the whole story, Su Baichen developed a genuine curiosity and pity for the ill-fated young sect master of the Misty Cloud Sect whom he had never met.

He turned to the maid waiting below and asked, "Where is Yun Yun being held now?"

After thinking briefly, the maid respectfully reported, "In reply to Mr. Su, she is currently imprisoned in the depths of the Snake-People Tribe's dungeon."

"Take me there." Su Baichen rose to his feet, his tone calm but unquestionable.

"Yes, Mr. Su. Please follow me." The maid bowed, then led the way, taking Su Baichen through winding corridors toward the grim, shadowy dungeon.

At the same time, deep within the Snake-People Tribe's dungeon.

The dark, damp cell was almost entirely cut off from the light. Only a few scattered torches on the walls cast wavering yellow glows, barely driving back some of the darkness. The air was filled with the smell of rotting straw and a faint scent of blood.

A slender figure sat curled up on a pile of straw in the corner, her back facing the cell door.

Her clothes were ragged. Her once-white dress was now covered in filth and dust, and several tears faintly revealed traces of the fierce battle she had once endured.

Her cloudlike dark hair hung loose and tangled, obscuring most of her face. Yet even in such a bedraggled state, her straight back and the elegant silhouette still visible despite her collapsed posture faintly revealed her former status and grace.

But at this moment, her eyes were hollow and unfocused as she stared blankly at the cold stone wall, as though her soul had long since left her body.

She sat there motionlessly, like a jade sculpture that had lost every trace of life.

Her master's unhesitating abandonment in that moment of danger had been like the coldest blade. It had not only shattered her trust and reliance on her master and sect, but also crushed the convictions and pride she had held for so long.

Whenever Yun Yun recalled that scene, she felt cold.

"Yun'er, help your master hold them off for a moment. Your master needs this brief time!"

At the time, Yun Yun had trusted Yun Shan completely. Even when he asked her, a Dou Wang, to hold off a Dou Emperor for a moment, she had not hesitated in the slightest.

But moments later, what she saw was her master fleeing without even looking back. No matter how she called out, that person gave her no response at all.

She had been abandoned, cruelly abandoned here.

She, Yun Yun, was a woman who had fallen from the clouds into the mud, suffering an unprecedented mental shock as her inner world nearly collapsed completely.